Introduction and Conclusion
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1 INTRODUCTION
2 ARGUMENTOS CONTRA EXISTÊNCIA DE DEUS...............................................................................3
3 ARGUMENT OF DISBELIEF
4 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................5
5 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES..............................................................................................6
1 INTRODUCTION
The question "Does God exist?" has probably occurred to most people. It is possible
also that there are people who have never asked themselves such a question and, nonetheless, believe in God.
Among those who believe, a large part has never heard of the 'ontological argument.'
those who do not believe, the same happens. We can believe in God for the sake of pure faith or
We can believe because we think we have reasons to do so. Be that as it may, it seems that we can be atheists.
in the same ways. Or is it not? Imagine that someone tried to argue that it is possible
prove the existence of God by relying only on operations of thought, in the same way that
we do when we calculate the result of 2+2 without the help of a calculator or any other means
of the type. Now imagine that this person believes they can show that the proposition 'God does not
"exists" is as unacceptable as the proposition "the triangle does not have three sides." If this were
possible, we would say, then the atheist would be a fool. The task seems quite complicated, but it is
exactly this that Saint Anselm believed he had done in the 11th century. Anselm's argument is
became very influential, being later defended by the philosopher René Descartes in his
famous 'Meditations' and contemporaneously by philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga (2000) and Norman
Malcom (2003). Some important variations emerged among the arguments put forward by these
philosophers, as when we speak of the ontological argument we are referring to a family
of arguments and not a single one. What they all have in common is the fact that they try to establish the
the existence of God without resorting to any experience. Everyone begins by proposing a concept of
God is, and then they show that we cannot deny his existence without falling into contradiction.
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2ARGUMENTSAGAINST EXISTENCE OFGOD
Argumentsagainst the existence ofGodhave been proposed by philosophers, theologians,
scientists and other thinkers throughout history.
In philosophical terms, such arguments primarily involve theepistemologyand aontology. The
arguments for the existence of God typically include metaphysical, empirical issues,
anthropological, epistemological or subjective.
Those who believe in the existence of one or more deities are called theists, those who reject
The existence of gods are called atheists.
The philosophical discussion in the West about the existence of God began withPlatoeAristotle, that
They formulated arguments that can today be classified as cosmological. More
afternoonEpicurusformulated theproblem of evilif God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, why
Does evil exist? The field oftheodicyIt arose from attempts to answer this question.
Other arguments in favor of the existence of God have been proposed bySaint Anselm, that
formulated the first ontological argument andThomas Aquinas, which presented its own
versions of the cosmological argument (the Kalam argument and the first way,
respectivelyDescarteswho said that the existence of a benevolent God was logically
necessary, andImmanuel Kantthat argued that the existence of God can be deduced from
of the existence of the good.
Thinkers who provided arguments against the existence of God includeDavid
Hume, Nietzschee Bertrand RussellIn modern culture, the question of the existence of God has been
discussed by scientists asStephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, John Lennox eFrancis
Collinsas well as philosophers, includingDaniel DennettRichard SwinburneWilliam Lane
Craig, Michael Tooley andAlvin Plantinga.
Some atheists claim that the arguments for the existence of God provide justification.
insufficient to believe. Furthermore, others claim that it is possible to contest affirmatively the
the existence of God, or of certain characteristics traditionally attributed to God such as the
perfection.
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3 ARGUMENT OF DISBELIEF
The argument of disbelief (or the argument of divine obscurity) is a philosophical argument.
against theexistence of GodThe premise of the argument is that if God exists (and wants that the
humanity knows this), he would create a situation in which every sensible person would believe in him.
However, there are many sensible skeptics and, therefore, this factor weighs against the possibility of the
existence of God. This argument is similar to the classicargument of evil, as far as
claims the inconsistency between the world that exists and the world that should exist if God had
certain desires, combined with the power to see through them.
In fact, since the ignorance of God became a natural evil, many categorize the
the problem of divine hiddenness as an instance of the problem of evil.
The argument was the theme of the book from 1993 Divine Hiddenness and Human.
Reason(emportugueseDivine Darkness and Human Reason, authored by J.L. Schellenberg, and
has been addressed by other philosophers, includingTheodore Drange.
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4 CONCLUSION
After working on Blackburn's argument, I concluded that we do not know whether we should include or not.
existence in the concept of a perfect God because we cannot compare existing beings with
nonexistent beings. However, the conclusion was not that God does not exist, but only that, if
If we rely solely on the ontological argument, we cannot conclude anything about it.
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5 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
Philosophical Investigation: vol. 1, n. 1, digital article 2, 2010.
